Improvement in the manufacture of gum-elastic shoes



UNITED STATES PATENT OF ICE.

CHARLES GOODYEAR, or ROXBURY, MASSACHUSETTS.

IMPROVEMENT in THE MANUFACTURE OF GUM-ELASTIO'SHOES.

Specification jforming part of Letters Patent- No. 849, dated July 24, 1838.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, CHARLES GooDYEAE, of'

Roxbury, county of Norfolk, State of Massachusetts, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Gum --Elastic Shoes; andI do hereby declare that the following is a full and exact description of the same.

The gum, having been dissolved or not, is, as is usual for other purposes, first formed into thin sheets varying in thickness as may be required for various kinds of shoes. Two sheets of about an equal thickness and dimensions are used for a shoe. The last on which the shoe is formed is first covered with one of these sheets ofgum. Cloth cut in pieces, tape, thread,

heel-piece is next placed to stili'en it. The

other sheet of gum, which forms the outside'of the shoe, is then placed over the whole upon the last. The sole of the shoe is added next. All the parts being in an adhesive state when used are. firmly joined together. An elastic binding, formed of gum-elastic andthread or other fibrous substance, isthen placed around the top to prevent the shoe from tearing. These shoes are afterward tanned or cured according to a chemical process as specified and patented by myself the 17th day of J nne, A. D. 1837.

These shoes, so constructed and tanned as hereinbefore described, are preferable to the,

imported article, inasmuch as they are made to fit. exactly, are not liable to damage or tear, and do not sweat the feet, as do other gum; elastic shoes.

What I claim as my improvement, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

The combination, in the manner above described, ot' gnmelastic and any suitable fibrous substance, so arranged that the shoe may be strong, not liable to damage, and yet elastic and comfortable.

CHARLES GOODYEAR.

Witnesses Amos WINEBERTIN, A. PEABODY. 

